A few months ago, one of my closest friends from the last forty years intimated that he had an illness which was likely to claim his life. So we had a slightly subdued dinner in a local restaurant with those of us left from the mad ‘gang’ of twelve or…
We were so excited that in October 2022 The Herald named three museums in Scotland to visit if fashion is your bag: The V&A in Dundee The National Museums of Scotland Dalgarven Mill Museums Read the full article online: https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-herald-magazine/20221029
I hope you like the first photography, it is of a really delightful Ayrshire calf and the angelic child on the other end of the rope is of course your author! Now my children and grandchildren are living in the house I was born and grew up in, and I…
Every once in a while, you get a phone call about something or other and if you happen to be the curator of a museum sometimes the conversations appear ever so slightly puzzling. Such as the lady who rang and said ‘would you like my mother’s dome?‘ – I said…
I know this is a week late, but last Saturday was the Glasgow Fair Saturday, 16 July, and anyone living in the West of Scotland has seen the astonishing photographs of literally hundreds of thousands of Glaswegian piling onto trains, buses and steamers for the fortnight’s holiday which to all…
When I was a Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Strathclyde, I developed a Design Unit which was intended to introduce students as physically as well as mentally as possible to the existing architectural stock. This meant that literally taking them out into the countryside and making them examine…
Way back in the late 1980s, we had completed the restoration of the buildings, and I received a telephone call from a very pleasant gentleman called David Morton, who informed me that he had sold a newsagent shop in the town of Dalry. His family had run a newsagents and…
In 1971, I was a young-ish architect working for Sir Frank Mears and Partners, and architecture and town planning practice in Edinburgh. When the competition to design the new Burrell exhibition gallery was announced, so with a fellow architect I entered the competition to design the new gallery in Pollock…
Last autumn, before everything went pear-shape, we answered a telephone call from a lady in southern Ayrshire, who explained they have lived since 1970, but were now leaving: she had a room filled with everything that they didn’t feel able to take with them. It included lace, textiles, China, churns,…
I consider myself blessed because not only did I grow up in a house with books, I had the good fortune to attend Irvine Royal Academy at a time when the Head of English was Dr Alec Forbes. Dr Forbes was famous for two things: the first was that on…
The Trustees and the Millers Kitchen regret that under the present circumstances we are closed for at least the next eight weeks.